Flathead snow hits 100 inches

The Daily Inter Lake

March snows helped push accumulated Montana mountain snowpack to near-average levels.

But it was a big winter for snow in the Flathead Valley.

As measured at Glacier Park International Airport, total snowfall has reached 100 inches this winter (including 65 inches since Jan. 1). The average annual snowfall in the valley is 53.5 inches.

Mountain snowpack is 96 percent of average above the state's Columbia River basin drainages, 93 percent for the Missouri Basin and 91 percent for the Yellowstone Basin, according to a monthly report from the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Bozeman.

The federal agency said there were big gains in mountain snowpack during March. Snow water content was 170 percent of average for the month west of the Continental Divide.

In Northwest Montana, mountain snowpack above the Kootenai River basin is 97 percent of the historic average, and the service is projecting streamflows to be 85 to 91 percent of average through July, based on average spring temperatures and precipitation.

The Flathead Basin mountain snowpack is 93 percent of average, and the streamflow forecast is 90 to 98 percent of average through July.